Bay Area GOP pol frets over Trump

There are few Bay Area jobs more precarious than Republican politician. And Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, the region’s only GOP lawmaker in Sacramento, knows knows she’s in for an even tougher re-election fight now that Donald Trump is the snarling face of her party.

“I know there is a possibility there will be drag,” said Baker a first-term incumbent from Dublin, who is facing off with former Pleasanton councilwoman Cheryl Cook-Kallio.

Baker said she had supported Ohio Gov. John Kasich for President, and doesn’t know who she’ll back in November.

“I have not been able to imagine a scenario in which I would be voting for Donald Trump,” Baker said. “I disagree with him on so many things.” But she has no intention of voting for Hillary Clinton either.

Trump is bad news for Baker, because he could depress Republican turnout and energize Democrats in the district that covers Alameda County’s Tri-Valley region and several wealthy Contra Costa towns including Danville, Orinda and San Ramon.

The district previously was represented by Joan Buchanan, a Democrat. Earlier this year, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon labeled it as the Democrat’s “top pick-up opportunity.”

Baker, a moderate, said she’s counting on voters turned off by Trump to still give her a fair hearing. “This is a very thoughtful electorate,” she said. “They don’t blindly vote the party line.”